Salut !
You know, in the street in Paris, when you bump into somebody. The first word that comes to your mind is « sorry ». If you speak a little bit of French, you say « pardon ». That’s easy.
Even if the « on » sound is tricky. ????
What about other everyday situations? The ones where you want to give an apology but feel that « pardon » is not enough?
Imagine: you’re in a shop and a pile of sweaters falls behind you, pushed by your handbag.
You have an appointement at 3PM and you’re still in the bus at 10 past 3.
You’re at an apéro with friends and you have to leave to pick up your son at the nanny.
What do you say?
This is what we’ll see in today’s episode of Comme une Française TV.
Click to watch « How to say you’re sorry in French »:
//www.youtube.com/embed/3l7_Hn4Nzzc?rel=0
Et toi ?
What do you say when you make a mistake in France?
Do you say « sorry »? Or nothing?
Have you ever had to ask for a real apology in French?
Géraldine
You’re wonderful Geraldine. I was also thinking, can one not also say “Je regrette” on certain occasions?
Oui, you can also say “Je regrette”! Well done Lichen. 🙂
When in a sad situation, as in your example that the neighbor’s dog died, I like to say “Je suis navrée, j’ignorais que Médor n’est plus avec vous.”
Is it ok to say ‘mes excuses’? Or je m’excuse (que je vous ai derange….ou qqch). I say this often but don’t know if it’s correct or idiomatic.
Hi Sarah,
“Mes excuses” and “Je m’excuse (de vous avoir dérangé)” is correct.
However, if you wish to push the idiomatic discussion a little bit further, lots of picky French people (including me) will tell you that excusing yourself is a bit easy. We should always ask forgiveness from the person in front of us. So it’s better to use “Excusez-moi” or “Veuillez m’excuser”. 🙂
The first store we visited in France after getting off the plane, other than picking up our car, was a grocery store. The cashier asked for our identification (passport) to use our credit card, and I couldn’t understand what she was saying. I felt the need to apologize for not understanding her, so I said “Je suis désolé” many times. She was of course annoyed, with good reason. And it was really our only less than polite experience during our 3 months there. I quickly tried to learn as much as I could while there, so that didn’t happen again.
Thanks for sharing Nate.
Excusez-moi Geraldine, je suis desolee mais je dois corriger votre anglais. C’est ‘from the nanny’ pas ‘at the nanny’.
(Excusez moi encore mais je ne sais pas comment faire des accents francais sur iPad!)
Merci Zhenya, c’est très gentil à vous.
Zhenia est gentille, mais elle a tort: ‘I have to pick up my child at the nanny’s’ est parfaitement acceptable.
Merci Bernard pour cette précision.
I am sorry to correct you both but unless ‘the Nanny’s’ is the name of a place the correct form in english would be: ‘I have to pick up my child who is at the Nanny’s’ or ‘I have to pick up my child from the Nanny’s’
Merci Geraldine! Vous m’aidez beaucoup!